Tag: Travels

“Shaastra 09”, the technical fest at IIT Madras, is neither a story to create nor an adventure to narrate but it is an experience worth reliving. It is always a pleasure to know where we stand at the all India level by competing with the best. Today we are proud to say that 4 of the 5 teams from NMAMIT won laurels in various competitions. Our journey from the west coast to the east coast began on the 29th September, 4:00 pm by the Chennai express. We traveled with loads of luggage and a team of 19, out of which 11 were from EC. (Here I mention luggage first because it weighed more than us). With all our excitement and anxiety about Shaastra, we reached Chennai half an hour prior to schedule. With guys like Lakku (our tamilian) on our side, we managed to argue with a cab driver to take us to the main gate of IIT.

Day 1: On reaching the hostel by 10 am, we still hadn’t done our morning duties. Somehow we found a patisserie shop. To suppress our hunger, we had food without even brushing…! After that came the disastrous wait in the sun to get accommodation (Someone also renamed shaastra as disastra). Finally by 2 we managed to get our rooms and immediately after having a bath we started our respective projects i.e., SCDC, Simchamp, Contraptions and The Rising. Having sleepless nights and foodless days was the routine for almost everyone except the Simchamp team.

Day 2: KK: Struggling with the circuit, we slept hardly for half an hour. Not getting the output, we were thinking of something new to make our circuit work. While Basti and his team were also in the same condition, GS was struggling with the soldron and PCB on his bed. The badam milk from the patisserie was our only nutrition for the full day. Raison was peeping from time to time to see our work progress. RD: In order to save more lives with our bot, we did some last minute changes to our code in the morning. Our event was scheduled for the afternoon. Being the last team to perform that day (2 IIT M teams performed the next day), we made it a point to showcase our code as better than the previous teams. We saved 36 with single bot and 86 with two bots. There was a cloud of nervousness on our heads. I and Kastury explained to the judges about the algorithm and code while Kenneth was giving time to time inputs on what must be explained.

Day 3: KK: In the morning, we were so unfortunate that we couldn’t watch the contraptions. At the same time we were worried because our circuit was not giving the desired output after combining the designed modules. The SCDC event was scheduled to be at 10. On reaching the event location, we were amazed to see some teams without even the circuits, some teams with non working circuits on the breadboard. We could breathe easily because our circuit was at least half working on PCB. The power of power electronics was evident from the working circuit of Basti, Sona, Vasu and Sandy. Ours was the first team to make the presentation. Pai was shivering on the dais. The judge was so happy to see our circuit on PCB and he came to know how to build it from us. At the same time Basti’s team also performed well up to the expected level. Ah… Finally some sleep. Having a small nap in the noon, we moved towards ‘Aerofest’ which included miniature plane models controlled by remote control. Their tactics in controlling the plane was amazing. When the audience requested for a Shakira move, the controller moved the plane vertically with shaking its belly. When we returned from Aerofest, we got to know that the Rising team won third place and the contraptions team had already lost. Our hope was fully on Simchamp because they were on top on the previous day with only two more IIT teams left. RD: The day started with the contraptions team setting up their module starting from 1:00 am!! Due to sleep loss they could not give their best performance and ended with a low score. We were totally disappointed. On the other side, SCDC event was taking place but we couldn’t attend it. Then we went to attend the remainder of our event, Simchamp. After sitting for 3 hours straight, the results were finally announced and we were ecstatic at winning the second place. We were on cloud nine. Our joy knew no bounds. Kastury wasn’t present when they announced the results, hence I and Kenneth had to go through the full thing again. This was just the start of greater things to come.

Day 4: KK: Our previous day had not ended till 5 in the morning. Though I had slept at 12, I was woken up at 5 by lakku . Opening my eyes I could see them fully energetic and they asked me to dance with them. They had danced at 3 too!!! Then we slept by 530 or so. Woke up by 9 in the morning, we had another competition-‘SHORT CIRCUIT’, both the SCDC teams formed 3 teams and participated. Then we roamed around the campus a bit and then had our lunch. Nap was a must in noon. Later in the evening, we SCDC teams planned to go to the Marina beach and then to THE CITICENTRE MALL. Catching the local train from the nearest station, we could reach the beach in only 20 minutes. It was a nice spot to lose the footwear and Basti’s sandals were drowned twice. Like a lifesaver, Ganesh was always ready to catch the sandals from the waves. He helped Basti to regain his sandals! On the way back from the beach, we found a nice shop selling seashells. Entering the mall, we could see the blend of royal architecture as well as the modern technology. By the time we reached third floor of the mall, all looked hungry. And Lakku was so desperate to taste the chicken in the KFC. Filling our stomach, we caught our train. Reaching the IIT gate, we realized that we had no bus to return to the hostel. No other way, had to walk back. But it was really a nice walk for 3km in the cool night. RD: The previous night was a bit noisy from the next room, but as usual we got good sleep. In the morning Kenny and Kastury were so stubborn to get up that I had to literally kick them out of their beds. We attended a hacking workshop which was really boring. Fortunately we could watch the air balloon event ‘The Rising’ . Few minutes into the event , and we were kicking ourselves for not taking part. Because of the 11 teams, only 3 balloons flew. The remaining either were too heavy or got burnt. In the midnight we attended one of the toughest quizzes ever. I and Kastury were irritated by the sheer nerdiness in those IITian jokes and left the venue at 2:00 am.

Day 5: KK & RD: We had a lot of free time for roaming AROUND. Planetarium was the first place we went to, but the next show was scheduled to begin in one more hour. Next was the Planetarium, which looked good in the beginning, but eventually as it continued, we got bored and Kenny was fast asleep. Moving out of planetarium, we decided to go to snake park of Guindy national park. Moving to entrance, we found that the Govt. was charging much for cameras than for the people. Lakku was in no mood to look at the snakes, he was just moving around looking at the people around. We were all hungry, so went to a hotel along with Karthik Kastury (he looted our pockets), who was our guide for Chennai for the moment. Later some of us wanted to buy some books, so went to Noor market. PC was bargaining so nicely that the shopkeeper finally agreed to sell the books for half of the price he initially argued for. On the way back we found a really nice sports shop where we had a lot to see (buying was tough, because almost everyone was running out of cash). Having our food in patisserie, sat there for some time talking about our Chennai and IIT days and how we will be missing it in future days. There was another bad news for us. We had to return our mattresses. Now, no other option, we had to sleep on the floor.

Day 6: KK & RD: Waking up early (sleeping on the floor had made our backbones pathetic). Now our work was to get our entire luggage to the entrance of Mahanadi hostel. We booked two cabs to make our luggage reach the Chennai central railway station before us. We found our train ‘WEST COAST EXPRESS’ and walked a long way to reach our sleeper coach bogie. As the train started moving, we were sad that we were going to miss Chennai and IIT. But we were also happy to return with the prizes. All were so lazy in the train that I began to think that the journey will be boring throughout. Once all woke up, the fun began with ‘SACH KA SAAMNA ‘(KK and pai revealed a lot) .And later we had dumb charades also. We noticed that the time was already 1030 when TT came and told us to sleep.

Day 7: Hmmm… the day began in Kudla itself. We were so happy to see our college again, but still we missed all the moments spent in IIT. EVERYDAY CAN’T BE A SHAASTRA DAY. Isn’t it?

Bowling on Monday and meeting old friends. Resting on Tuesday and a cancelled plan leading to a quick fix brainstorm of a solution led me to opt for the Manipal Trip on wednesday and well this way it was definitely better. I would have missed certain things if the original plan had actually gone through. This way i got the best of Both worlds 🙂

We left mangalore, me with Mario and Praahas and Raison opting in last minute, at 9 something. The day was naagara panchami and so the buses were rushed. We reached Karthik‘s place at half past 11 and left it soon after. I rode with naman on the kinetic to manipal and we got caught in the rain. After Brunch at 7bees we proceeded to check out the place again. this time i was a bit bored because its my 3rd time going on the Karthik’s guided tour. Luckily at MIT we bumped into Venisha who i had already warned that we were droping by. She actually had some class but bunked it and joined us for Lunch. Lot of catching up was done. She’s my neighbour and pretty much my only good friend who’s at MIT. After all the fun and the treat i had to head off to Udupi to meet another good friend: Equi. After some crazyiness, another treat and getting wet in the rain, again!, i had to say adieu to her and meet up with the others to go to End point. I was sure glad that i could meet her. it was some fun. for more read this. The rest of the guys had been at Karthik’s place.

It had stopped raining when we met again at Tiger Circle. At end point, it started raining and hence you will see me with an Umbrella open most of the time. Me and Praahas were getting late. next stop was at Barista’s counter at the food court. Mangalore lacks a Barista and we wanted to try out the coffee. it was nothing special and pretty much like CCD. finally we had to say bye to Karthik, Naman and Manipal and head home. i reached home at almost 9 with aching knees and apparently tired red eyes.

College starts on Friday. The trip was good 🙂

what i ate: Paneer Cheese burger, Chicken noodles and lot of side dishes, Musumbi juice, Gudbud and a Chocolate Milkshake and a Irish flavoured Capuccino.